


Pete_The_Nerd

by xRockChickx



Category: Fantastic Four, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Johnny has no mercy, M/M, Peter regrets everything, Social Media, as always, spideytorch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-16 23:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5844820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xRockChickx/pseuds/xRockChickx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Parker isn't exactly fond of social media, and he has no desire to participate in it. But Johnny Storm seems to have another, secret super power: convincing Peter to do stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pete_The_Nerd

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sciderman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sciderman/gifts).



> This fic was commissioned by the amazing Sci!
> 
> Enjoy!

Hearing the sharp ding coming from his vibrating phone's speaker, Peter turned on his other side in his bed, a scowl marring his features. The Facebook message he got couldn't possibly be important enough to make him get up. It was a Saturday – it couldn't be about class being cancelled. JJJ would simply call him if he demanded Peter's presence, so it couldn't be about The Bugle either.

Peter came to the conclusion that the message's sender was either MJ or Johnny Storm, based on previous experiences.

He heard another ding, which made him huff in frustration, and after a moment of fighting his pillow he hid his head under it. He could still make out the next dinging noise, which made him audibly groan.

MJ never kept bugging him with messages. She was patient and respectful of Peter's boundaries. This left him with one possible option: the annoying, impatient person continuously messaging him must have been Johnny.

He was not going to reply. He was going back to his sweet, well-deserved sleep. Johnny needed to learn how to wait.

For about five minutes there was silence, then there was another ding... and another.

Peter threw his pillow at the wall, his movement filled with anger. He sat up and grabbed the phone that he had left on his night stand. He unlocked it and squinted at the number five sitting in a small red circle in the upper right corner of the messenger app's icon.

Maybe it was something important, he told himself. Maybe Johnny had a legit reason to wake him up on a Saturday morning. It could be an emergency. What kind of emergency would he need Peter Parker for? Probably none, but he had to give the blond a chance.

He opened the app to read the messages, and with each passing moment his scowl deepened.

>    08:11
> 
> So have you made a snapchat acc yet?
> 
> This is like super important, dude. Make a snapchat 
> 
> This is how modern people communicate
> 
> You're excluding yourself 
> 
> Its your responsibility to be part of modern society

Peter stared at his screen in disbelief. This is what Johnny woke him up for?

> *it's

That was all he replied. It was what Johnny Storm deserved.

The blond was quick to respond, because apparently his fancy iPhone was an extension of his hand at this point – Peter wondered if it was specially made just for him, so he could flame on with his phone in his hand. Could a phone be fireproof?

> Wtf?? So have you made a snapchat yet

Peter huffed and threw his head back for a moment before answering.

> No. I don't want to.

He didn't even have time to close the application before the reply arrived.

> We both know I'll keep bugging you till you make an acc 

Peter sighed. He did know.

He opened Google Play to download Snapchat.

 

* * *

 

As soon as he messaged Johnny about his new username, he got about five snaps of Johnny making different faces while pushing his fingers through his blonde locks in different positions – they were all perfectly staged with the right lighting and typical selfie angles. Within ten minutes roughly fifty people added him. He didn't even know fifty people who used Snapchat. He had no idea who most of these people were.

He opened the sixth snap from Johnny, which was a picture of the blond as he winked at the camera, and the caption read: 'next one is getting twitter, Pete '

Why did he use a winking emoji if he was already winking in the picture?

Instead of replying with a selfie, Peter covered his camera as he took a picture, making the background black, and he just wrote 'no '.

In only a minute Peter heard the small dinging notification noise that had been driving him up the wall.

> 09:05
> 
> Meet in our fave starbucks in 20

The brunet huffed as he replied.

> You mean YOUR favourite starbucks...

Peter got up from his comfortable spot on the couch to get ready before he left the cosy Johnny-lessness of his home – meaning dressing up nearly properly to visit The Outside and vaguely brushing his teeth... maybe combing his hair.

If Johnny kept trying to convince him to join all sorts of social media, he would say no. Snapchat was overwhelming enough. Hell, even Facebook felt overwhelming enough.

But that's not what the blond had planned for him. As soon as he entered the overpriced café, Johnny appeared out of nowhere and threw his arm around Peter's shoulder, pulling him towards an empty table.

"I've already ordered our usual drinks," Johnny stated and pushed Peter towards a seat before sitting on the other side of the table himself. "You should have _just_ enough time to connect to the Wi-Fi and download Instagram, so you can take a photo of your fashionable coffee and use ten different hashtags for it."

Peter stared at Johnny with a blank expression before narrowing his eyes.

"I'm either getting Twitter or Instagram. I'm not getting both."

"Oh my god, Pete!" the blond groaned, throwing his arms into the air dramatically. "You need to keep up with technology!"

"This is not technology. It's just social media."

"Isn't it the same thing? Look, I don't really care anyway. Get Instagram."

"You do realise I will almost never use these apps, right? They are just taking up my precious internal memory."

"Just download Instagram," Johnny rolled his eyes as he stood up. "I'll go get our coffees."

He disappeared to the coffee bar to retrieve their hot beverages. Peter sighed and submitted himself to the evil of Instagram. Considering that Johnny took the time to hit on the lady at the counter, he could just install the app by the blond's return.

"Are you done yet?" Johnny asked impatiently.

"I'm signing up right now," Peter muttered as he tapped his tiny screen. "What should my username be?"

"PeteTheNerd? Maybe with underscores."

Peter settled his gaze on Johnny just for a moment, but it was enough to silently communicate something along the lines of 'you're not helping' or 'I'm going to break your neck one day'.

After a minute of tapping his screen and grunting, he let out a defeated sigh.

"My name was taken, in all kinds of forms. I can't believe I had to go with something so stupid."

"Aw, did you choose the one I said? I love it when you take pride in your nerd identity, Pete. Your first photo will make it even better!"

"What?" he asked with mild confusion as his glance darted to his coffee. His cup had 'Nerd' written on it in the barista's handwriting. "I hate you."

"Take a photo of your fashionable coffee," Johnny replied, holding up his index finger to shush him as he got his own phone out of his pocket to quickly follow Peter and then post a picture of his own cup of coffee – that had Flamebrain on it. After adding a filter and a bunch of generic hashtags to it and also tagging Peter, he looked up. "Done yet? Don't forget to tag me."

"Yeah, whatever," Peter muttered as he hit send. As soon as the notification popped up, Johnny excitedly checked it out, just to end up staring at his screen with a frown and slight disbelief – which didn't make him any less attractive, mind you.

"What the hell is C8H10N4O2 and why did you tag it?"

"Caffeine."

"What?"

"That's the formula of caffeine."

"Jesus Christ. And you don't tag 'overpriced' when posting pics of your Starbucks coffee, dude."

"I tag it as whatever it is."

Johnny squinted at him. "I'll need to teach you how to use social media."

"I am completely aware of how I'm supposed to use social media, thank you very much. I think I'm very original with my own way of posting."

"You're terrible. And you really need to participate in this kind of stuff more, Pete. I don't know why you're so reluctant," Johnny shook his head as he took a sip of his skinny hazelnut flavoured latte.

"I just don't get why you think I need it," Peter sighed as he pulled his own - much simpler - coffee closer to himself.

"You're a photographer! Do you know how much recognition you could possibly get if you tried investing in social media? You could become famous, dude!"

"You know I'm more into the old school stuff," Peter shrugged.

"You could still get some recognition, and then later turn the spotlight towards your preferred stuff. You gotta take what you can get," the blond argued, taking the lid off his cup to reveal the extra whipped cream so he could lick into it. Peter wondered if it was low-fat whipped cream. It never made sense to him that Johnny ordered skinny latte with extra whipped cream, but he never dared to question it.

"I don't feel like I would do a good job as a social media famous person," the brunet replied. "I don't know why it isn't enough for you that I have Facebook."

"You only have Facebook to be in study groups," Johnny rolled his eyes. "Besides, you downloaded the messenger app just so you can avoid actually having to use Facebook. Don't think you can trick me, Parker."

Peter let out a disappointed sigh and laid his head on the table. "Was the only goal of hanging out harassing me about stupid sites and apps?" he asked, his voice muffled by the wooden surface he leaned his forehead against.

"No, I also wanted my latte." Peter responded with a groan. "I think you would become less bitter if you put more sugar in your double espresso. You know, maybe your body could suck up the sweetness, and you could be a sweet person, with more social life."

"Are you saying double espressos have more social life if they are sweet?"

"No, I'm saying nerds do."

Peter sighed and sat up properly to take a sip of his coffee.

 

* * *

 

He gained an irrational amount of followers on Instagram in no time. This was no surprise, since Johnny probably made everyone he knew follow him. What was a surprise that people seemed to love the nerdy things he posted – that Johnny despised and messaged him about, saying something about how people didn't like that loser stuff. In fact, he kept getting messages like 'haha you're so smart! ', 'gosh I love all this science stuff you post! ' and 'this is my study aesthetic insta', which amused him to no end.

In the meantime, every second Snapchat he got from Johnny said that he should get Twitter.

He did not want to get Twitter, but his odd success on Instagram seemed to make him feel tempted – just a little bit. Not too much. He still didn't like social media.

It also confused him at times; especially Johnny's Snapchat stories. Most of them included him half-naked and posing in different yet oddly similar ways in front of his mirror – a mirror Peter recognised from Johnny's room. They made him press his lips together and tap the screen, occasionally a bit too quickly and vigorously, to make the photo disappear. This obviously wasn't the confusing part. It was the emojis. Those things seemed to have meanings he was not aware of. What the hell was an eggplant doing in the captions of Johnny's half-naked selfies? Why would he even use a vegetable? It just made no sense.

In the meantime, he made sure not to address any of the Snaps Johnny sent him with his scowling face and captions such as 'Take selfies, dude '.

That until he got _blackmailed_.

"I'm going to take pictures of you," Johnny said one afternoon as he shoved a paper-cup of double espresso into Peter's hand when the brunet opened the door for his unexpected guest, "and I'm going to send them to _everyone_ on Snapchat. I'll also upload them on Instagram to show the entire world what a loser you are for not posting selfies."

"What does that even mean?" Peter asked and took the double espresso, as he basically had no choice. Johnny seemed to love buying him coffee. Maybe he just liked giving him something dark and bitter.

"It means that– look, you have a good face structure for selfies. Your hair is messy, which looks awful in real life if you ask me, but getting the right angles it could look endearing. I can also imagine your face with the hudson or valencia filters oddly well. You should be taking advantage of it!"

"I have no interest in selfies, Johnny. My face looks unacceptably tired ninety percent of the time."

"I realise that. So drink up your coffee, and we'll take a selfie together."

"No way."

"Yes way. Do it!"

"God, Johnny, you need to stop. You've been bugging me for _months_ and now that I've started to oblige you, just can't leave me alone."

"I'm breaking you in, Pete. I can't stop now."

"You're the worst friend ever."

"You mean the best. You'll thank me later," Johnny replied, patting Peter's shoulder before strolling into the living room with his coffee – a skinny latte, probably.

Peter sighed and followed him. "All right. Let's get it done, the sooner the better. Just let's get over it."

Johnny flashed a charming smile at him and put his cup on the coffee table before gently taking Peter's too and placing it beside his.

"Do you have your phone?" he asked, and when the brunet nodded, he started pulling him towards the bathroom. Once they were there he squinted at the (dirty and a bit broken) mirror judgingly. "Is this the only mirror you have?"

"Yeah?"

"That's truly an outrage. We'll have to do the whole front camera business, then," Johnny muttered as he dragged Peter back to the living room. He stopped facing the window – a very poorly situated window, he might add – and placed his arm around Peter's waist to pull him closer. The brunet clumsily fished his phone out of his pocket and opened Snapchat on it. He turned his phone around and was about to take the picture when Johnny snorted at him. "Front camera, Pete. We gotta see what we're doing."

"I don't have a front camera."

"What do you mean you don't have one?"

"This phone cost me less than a hundred dollars, Johnny."

A loud sigh fell from the blond's lips as he pulled his iPhone out. "I'll go first, then." In no time he was looking at their moving picture presented by the camera, squinting at the screen judgementally as he lifted his hand from Peter's waist to adjust his shirt and ruffle his hair a bit, then comb through the brown locks with his fingers. Peter was pleasantly surprised that the tingle he felt on his scalp and neck didn't develop into a shudder. Johnny then lifted Peter's chin just a bit before placing his hand back on the brunet's waist. He took a second to find the right angle, then snapped a picture.

It was the most typical selfie ever. Peter sighed – he couldn't believe he had just wasted an entire minute on this. Johnny thoughtfully saved the picture for Instagram reasons before adding the caption 'Wow, look at these hotties ' and sending it to his Snapchat story for a surprisingly big fraction of the population to see. Great.

"Your turn," Johnny hummed as he continued tapping on his screen to quickly post it on Instagram too, after adding the right filter and tagging Peter and a bunch of other, almost unrelated things.

"Did you just call me a hottie?" Peter asked as he lifted his phone once again.

"I totally didn't," Johnny replied as he tucked his iPhone away and looked into the camera of Peter's phone. The brunet snapped a picture and sent it to a few selected people he actually knew. "You aren't posting it on Instagram?"

"Nope. You've already posted one anyway."

Johnny stared at him in disbelief and shook his head.

 

* * *

 

Peter mostly went on patrol during night-time, but on occasion he started earlier. This was one of those days, and he didn't feel regretful about it.

The settling sun was beautiful as its warm colours were reflected on the windows of Manhattan's buildings. Especially from such a spot – from the top of a skyscraper. There were things Peter absolutely loved about being Spider-Man, and this was definitely one of them. He couldn't resist sending a Snapchat to Johnny, even though the picture didn't reflect nearly as many colours as he could see.

Barely a few seconds later he got a reply in form of a chat message.

> Dude, how did you even take that pic??

He entirely forgot Peter Parker was not supposed to be on top of skyscrapers, and he had almost just revealed he was Spider-Man. He massaged the bridge of his nose before sending a reply.

> Happened to be standing in the right window at the right time.

Right. Johnny was surely going to believe that.

 

* * *

 

It took another week of convincing and bugging on Johnny's part (and flattering Instagram comments on everyone else's) for Peter to get Twitter. He conveniently chose the same username as his Instagram. He couldn't believe that was going to be his internet identity from then on. He didn't sign up for this.

Once again he was taken aback by the sheer amount of followers he got within a few days, due to Johnny basically advertising him and continuously tagging him in quite a lot of tweets, mostly to Peter's annoyance.

However, he had never seen the social media side of Johnny Storm before, and this was probably the most interesting and engaging side of joining all these platforms. Johnny posted pretty average things, to be honest. Random complaints, what he had for dinner, a sea of selfies, some bragging about superhero stuff.

Peter absolutely hated admitting that it was sort of entertaining.

He kept posting science and university related things. His stuff was oddly popular on all the platforms he engaged in.

 

* * *

 

After receiving a certain Snapchat from Johnny, he had more questions than ever. In the picture there was Johnny, with wet blond locks and water drops trailing down his neck and naked shoulders. He was wearing his usual grin.

'Had the best shower ever ', the caption said.

What the hell was the eggplant doing there? Why was Johnny sending him this?

Peter Googled it. Peter Googled the eggplant emoji.

The goddamn eggplant meant dick. _The eggplant_.

It became clear that Johnny just told him that he jerked off in the shower. Peter didn't need this sort of thing in his life. He didn't need to become this red in any situation, ever.

God, Johnny used the damn eggplant all the time. Peter had just gained knowledge he wished he never had.

 

* * *

 

> 11:08
> 
> Post some Spidey pics on Instagram
> 
> People will love it, dude
> 
> I don't know why you didn't try that stuff sooner

Peter felt very unsure about this, which was sort of silly; there was no harm in people knowing he was Peter Parker, The Bugle's photographer. Everyone knew Peter Parker took pictures of Spider-Man. It would be absolutely no surprise to anyone if he posted some online.

His messenger alert noise dinged again.

> If you don't do it, next time I meet Spidey I'll do it myself and I'll get famous with it

A frustrated sigh fell from Peter's mouth. He had been sighing quite a lot lately. He quickly sent a reply.

> Johnny, you're already famous.

He didn't believe Johnny would actually do that anyway.

He was entirely wrong. Johnny actually did that the next time they teamed-up.

As soon as they beat the Rhino, Johnny yelled to him:

"Let's meet on top of the Baxter Building!"

So that's where he went. The moment he arrived, his phone automatically connected to the Wi-Fi, and it buzzed with alerts. He ignored it as he walked up to Johnny, who was a lot ruder than him and kept his phone in his hand.

"How do you even carry your phone around?" he asked.

"It's fireproof. Would you expect anything less from me?" Johnny asked with a snort. "I think it's a better question how _you_ carry your phone around. Your spandex is skin tight."

"Yours is too."

"That's really not the point. Hey, look behind you! The view is great. Perfect for a selfie."

"No. You can't."

"We totally should take a selfie together."

"No."

"Do it for me?" Johnny asked and pursed his lips.

" _No_. Stop."

The blond sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I already took a picture of your butt. I'm totes sending it to Peter Parker and probably straight to The Bugle too." He held his iPhone as far from Spider-Man as he possibly could. He turned away and lifted from the ground as he chose Peter as the recipient of the picture and hit send.

Spider-Man snatched it out of Johnny's hand with a string of web, but it was too late. His phone audibly buzzed with the alert.

The blond stared at him knowingly. Spider-Man stared back through his mask. _Fuck_.

"So, tell me, _Spidey_ ," Johnny asked, smirking. "Do you enjoy getting Snapchats of the very half-naked Human Torch?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he replied. Peter's mind was racing. He was desperately trying to come up with a cover story.

"Don't bother. You accidentally sent me a Snapchat with your suit in the corner of the picture. First I thought, did Peter have sex with Spider-Man? But that seemed stupid. You should be more thoughtful and not leave it on the floor. You being Spider-Man also explained how you took that picture of the sunset, I mean, there was no reflection or dirt from a window." Johnny took his iPhone out of Spider-Man's hand. "I knew you were a loser, but I thought you were a smart one, Parker."

Peter was incredibly grateful for the coverage his mask offered as he felt a quite big amount of blood rush into his face. Johnny's features softened as he looked at the frozen superhero.

"Aw, don't worry. I won't tell anyone. The secret stays between us."

"You promise?" Peter asked unsurely, and his voice sounded unusually tiny.

"Yeah, man," Johnny replied and threw his arm around Peter's shoulders. "Now check out the pic of your own butt I've just sent you. And also the ones I posted on Instagram. You always move around so much, I think I'm super talented for taking such good pictures of you."

Peter let out a small, miserable whimper before saying no.

 

* * *

 

He wasn't sure if anything would change between the Johnny and him, so he was relieved when nothing did. He kept posting things on all those horrible platforms Johnny kept bugging him on, but he was super careful.

He didn't expect any more casualties. He felt experienced now.

Seemingly not enough, though. He almost spat his coffee when one morning he opened a Snapchat from Johnny, and it was a _nude_ with the very witty caption: 'like what you see, Pete?  '

Peter panicked and hit the screen to make it disappear. This was not what he signed up for. He had never asked for this.

Peter stared at his screen. His gazed was fixed on Johnny's Snapchat name and that little text he always read but had never addressed before. Press and hold to replay.

He pressed and held to replay. And then he took a screenshot, for the first time ever since he got Snapchat.

He had known all along – he had known participating in social media would end in a disaster. He should have never agreed to any of this.

He was turning the brightest red colour upon discovering that Snapchat is kind enough to tell people when replays happen and screenshots are taken. Johnny will see and Peter wanted to strangle himself.

It only took a moment for Johnny to send him a chat.

> I see you like a special treat, webhead 


End file.
